there\\\'s an object there

Post #7 • May 9, 2003, 4:21 AM

Me: It got back to me today that a friend of one of my students supposedly hates me because I gave a bad review to her boyfriend or something like that. I don’t get it. You know what I would do if somebody gave me a bad review of my painting? I’d go and do another one exactly like it. I wouldn’t care one bit. I paint for myself, based on principles I believe in. My paintings are not for everybody – they’re for people who like painting. Not everyone likes painting, and they can go look at other kinds of work. And I think they’re missing out on some great art, but I certainly don’t hate them. That’s ridiculous.

Fellow Painter: You know what, though? A lot of these kids who are involved with conceptual art don’t have a lot going on with them. If you make a painting, and somebody critiques it, there’s an object there that has to be dealt with. But if most of your work is an idea, and somebody rips down the idea, your whole trip is over. And a lot of them have been told how great they are over and over again. Somebody like you comes along and says something different, and boom. They don’t know how to deal with that.

Me: It’s not like I’m against conceptual art, I just that think a lot of people do it badly and few do it well. Like painting or anything else.

FP: People like that, they need enemies.

Me: Right. And the reactions I get are like, your work is lame and your writing is dumb and you have bad manners… It’s never, “We disagree with you and here’s why.”